Sherrice Iverson
October 20, 1989 - May 25, 1997
| A site came to my
attention and I decided
that it is very important for the children on that site to be
remembered
on as many sites as is possible. The site background is this:
Black Kids Heaven is a site
made in memory of black
children who have been victims of violent crimes. The site was put
together
in the name of Sherrice Iverson who was only seven years old at the
time
of her rape and
murder. Sherrice's life came to
an end when she met
a man named Jeremy Strohmeyer in a casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, while
her
father gambled and her brother, who was supposed to be watching after
her
who lost track of her. That was on May 25, 1997, the last day in life
of
Sherrice Iverson.
Sherrice met up with a child
her age and they began
playing together. The two children were throwing wet paper towels at
each
other when one of the paper towels hit Jeremy Strohmeyer. An innocent,
fun game would turn out to be a deadly mistake for Sherrice.
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Sherrice thought that it would be a good
idea to hide,
in play, from Jeremy. Sherrice chose to hide in the women's bathroom.
Jeremy
and his friend, a man named David Cash, followed her into the women's
bathroom.
David Cash looked over the bathroom stall and saw Jeremy sexually
assaulting
the seven year old girl and asked him to stop. Jeremy ignored the
request
and continued to tell Sherrice if she didn't "shut up", he was going to
kill her.
David left the bathroom, never
bothering to alert
anyone to what was going on inside and waited for Jeremy. When Jeremy
came
out, David asked him a few disgusting questions about the rape. Later
in
the day, Jeremy told David that he had killed the little girl. Jeremy
had
tried to strangle the girl and when that didn't work he twisted her
neck
until he heard it snap. The men returned to Long Beach,
California.
Jeremy was arrested after going to
school and bragging
about what he had done to Sherrice. By pleading guilty, he was able to
avoid being sentenced to death. Jeremy was sentenced to life in prison
without the possibility of parole. David Cash was not prosecuted for
what
happened even though he didn't do the right thing and report was had
happened.
A new bill was introduced by Nevada
State Assembly
Majority Leader Richard Perkins called the Sherrice Iverson's Bill. The
bill would have made it a requirement for ANY adult who
witnessed
the sexual assault of a child who is under the age of 14 to report it
or
spend six months in jail. That hardly seems like a long enough time, in
my own opinion. The bill was never enacted.
In 2000, 2001 and 2003, Jeremy
Strohmeyer applied
for release from prison while appealing his convictions. His appeals
were
denied. Due to the unwillingness of David Cash to stop what he saw or
report
it, cameras have been installed in Nevada hotels and casinos and some
casinos
now have security guards working in the arcades. If anything good was
to
come of the death of this little Angel, that would be it.
The safety of Jeremy Strohmeyer is at
risk due to
the nature of his crime. In prison, crimes against children put people
in great danger. Jeremy won't have to worry about that though, he's
been
in protective custody at the Lovelock Correctional Facility in Nevada.
Jeremy spends 24 hours a day in his cell, alone. His life is closely
guarded,
even though he took the life of an innocent child.
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The life of David
Cash goes on. His failure
to protect this little girl from his monster of a friend reflects on
him
and speaks volumes about what kind of person he is. I do hope that he
is
remembered for the rest of his life as the man who approves of raping
and
killing little children. After hearing some very cold and heartless
comments
made by David Cash in regards to what had happened and how he had
ignored
it, Tim Conway Jr. and Doug Steckler organized a rally at the college
where
David was studying nuclear engineering.
David was asked if the murder
was bothering his conscience"
"No, not to the
extent that most people
would want it to be."
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"How much am I supposed to-to
sit down and
cry about this? I mean, let's be reasonable here.
Is my life supposed to halt
for-like, for
days, weeks and months on end? The simple fact remains,
I do not know this little girl. I
do not know
starving children in Panama."
David Cash
In response to those comments Yolanda
fired back:
"You don't have to know a child
or a human
being to save their life. Get yourself together,
David Cash, because you know
you're wrong.
You don't have no remorse for me or my family.
I have people from all over the
world calling
and crying with me over the telephone, David, and
you haven't called, your parents
haven't even
called."
Yolanda Manuel and over 100 other
people went the
University of California at Berkeley and tried to get David expelled.
Saying
that David had helped contribute to the death of her daughter by just
walking
away and acting as if nothing had happened and not reporting what he
had
seen. Yolanda felt that he was an accessory to what happened. I agree
with
her! Because Nevada doesn't have a "good samaritan" law, David had done
nothing wrong as far as the law was concerned.
"I don't have my child with me
no more. At
this point I'm going after David Cash because
was in the bathroom at the time
and he didn't
do nothing about it. I'm very outraged about this.
He is an accomplice to the
murder."
David's parents never said a word
about what happened.
Mark Werksman, David's lawyer had nothing to say about the protest and
said that David also had nothing to say stating:
"He's said enough"
Other comments that were made by
David Cash have
made people angry, including Yolanda and the public in general. David
bragged
that since the crime was so well known, he was able to meet women more
easily and he was quoted as having said he planned to profit from this.
David denies he made either comment. It sounds like things he would say
though!
A crowd of people gathered on the
steps of Spraul
Plaza with signs telling David to go home. Students talked about how
they
were uncomfortable in having to share a dorm and even a campus with
David.
The students also told of their disappointment in Chancellor Robert
Berdahl
for not making David leave the school. Robert Berdahl said that because
David had not committed a crime, he could not dismiss him.
"Berkeley has a choice about
who they accept
as students and they try to screen them really well.
In this case, they made a mistake,
and now
he needs to get out of here. He needs to be
responsible, otherwise he'll never
be an adult.
Somebody's got to take the first step and
should be Berkeley."
Tina Rouvatis - A student
Yolanda had a message for David that
day:
"I'm not going to give up on
you, David. I'm
still crying, but I told David that I'm not going to cry
no more, because he's going to be
the next
to cry."
After that, many people who had come
to support her
offered words of support and even hugs to her. Some people thought that
because her daughter is black and the her attacker and his supporter
are
white, that Yolanda is trying to make this a race issue. Yolanda says
that
is not true. I believe her.
"I feel really awful for
Manuel. I'm appalled
and I don't think this student should be at Cal. If
we can expel people for
plagiarism, we should
be able to expel someone, who as far as
I'm concerned, was an accomplice
to a murder."
Donna Weir - A student and
instructor
Yolanda filed a civil lawsuit and a
settlement was
reached.
Sherrice was laid to rest on on May
31, 1997. May
she rest in peace, with Angels taking care of her.
 ..
..
Sadly LeRoy Iverson died at the age
of 60 in July
of 2000 due to complications with Diabetes and Cancer. Sherrice is now
with her father.
LeRoy's death came just four months
before his civil
lawsuit against the hotel where Sherrice was killed was set to go to
court.
David Phillips, LeRoy's lawyer said:
"He
loses his
life, he loses his daughter, and then his son is left alone"
LeRoy also had a son named Harold Lee
Jordan Iverson.
David Phillips said he would still go to court over the civil case.
LeRoy's
doctor said that he had been badly affected by the murder of his
daughter,
that he had been really down about it. A service was held for LeRoy at
Paradise Baptist Church in Los Angeles.
Read
About Changes
You can visit the site that inspired me
to tell
this story, by clicking below:
For information about preventing child
abuse in the
state of Nevada, click the links below. If they can't help you, ask for
someone who can. NEVER give up looking for help for an abused
child!
Call
this number
to report child abuse ANY WHERE in the United States!
1-800-4-A-Child
1-800-422-4453
   
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